The Power of the Canine Superhero: Variety in 60 seconds

Disney is planning a big-screen, live-action version of the classic cartoon Underdog, and to that end, they're "pondering a nationwide talent search for the next dog star." Producer Gary Barber: "Anything where you have a dog in that superhero context, that's appealing on a global basis."

Five days. 73 countries. $41.7 million. Such are the numbers on Batman Begins' foreign box office.

Former Batman Val Kilmer, currently appearing on the London stage, "kept a appropriately low profile" the other night at Batman Begins' premiere there - which means, he wasn't invited.

Picturehouse, the new Bob Berney-led venture comingling the assets of HBO Films and New Line Pictures, has announced several additions to their New York-based staff. Among them: longtime Berney cohort Rob Schwartz has been tapped as COO, and former Newmarket and Miramax exec Crystal King has singed on as VP of marketing.

Disney has picked up a pitch by Aline Brosh-McKenna called Trophy Wives' Club, a May-December romantic comedy.

Remake round-up: Joe Leydon predicts that Herbie: Fully Loaded will be able to overcome any tabloidy damage to score with its target audience, and Justin Chang has little but good to say about Land of the Dead, which resurrects George A. Romero's "legendary franchise with top-flight visuals, terrific genre smarts and tantalizing layers of implication."